Because It Makes Your Mother Happy
by lovesrainscent
Summary: There are some things, Shikamaru learns, that you do simply because it makes your mother happy. And maybe those things aren’t so much trouble after all. Shika/Tema and also Shikaku/Yoshino


**Title:** Because It Makes Your Mother Happy

**Rating:** T

**Pairing:** Shika/Tema of course, but in a round-about kind of way

**Summary:** There are some things, Shikamaru learns, that you do simply because it makes your mother happy. And maybe those things aren't so much trouble after all.

**Because It Makes Your Mother Happy**

"How many of these do we have to move?" Shikamaru groused at his father.

"Three more," Shikaku responded grumbling himself.

"And why?" Shikamaru asked.

"Because it makes your mother happy," his father replied.

The two men finished setting up the tables in the garden behind the house. They then got to work stringing lanterns among the trees, grumbling all the while about the amount of work Yoshino made for both of them.

Temari watched, smiling from the kitchen window then sent her two children out into the yard to play. Their decorating job completed, the two men took turns playing shadow tag with the boy and girl as the afternoon turned to early evening.

Gaara and Sakura were the first to arrive, along with their own two children in tow. The matched set of fuschia-haired twins, a boy and a girl squealed, "_Obaasan! Obaasan_!" as they tumbled in the door heading straight for the kitchen to fling themselves into Yoshino's waiting arms. The older woman emerged with the girl perched on her hip and leading the boy by one sticky hand back to his mother. She let go of the boy's hand and smiled at Sakura and Gaara, greeting them and urging them all to come in, come in.

Yoshino led them all back into the kitchen, shooing the boy and girl out into the yard to play with their cousins. She smiled and nodded, "Sakura-chan, Gaara-kun."

Temari smiled to herself. Only her mother-in-law could get away with calling her brother, the Kazekage himself, Gaara-kun. And only her mother-in-law would remember that even though it was Shikamaru's birthday and she'd been busy on his decoration cake all day, that Gaara-kun loved strawberry daifuku (heavy on the strawberries, less on the sweet bean-paste.) And no one else but Nara Yoshino could tease that shy, positively boyish look of gratefulness from her younger brother when she showed him the tray of sweets she'd made especially for him.

Next came Kankuro and Kiba, along with Akamaru. By this time Shikamaru had come inside so he answered the door. He was a little surprised to see both of them, after all he wasn't sure if his mother knew the two of them were a couple. But he led them on back and gave his wife a lopsided smile across the room as his mother offered Kankuro green tea cookies (his favorite) and accepted an all encompassing hug from Kiba who had to bend far over to hug the petite woman.

After his mother, Kankuro and Kiba went outside to join the rest of the party, Temari and Shikamaru were left alone in the kitchen. "So, er, did you invite Kiba, too?" Shikamaru asked his wife.

"I had nothing to do with the invitations," Temari answered him. Then smiling she nodded to the countertop beside her. Yoshino always kept a supply of candy and small treats for when her grandchildren (all four of them, since she counted Gaara's two as her own as well) came to visit. A large box of dog biscuits had now joined them on the counter. Shikamaru shook his head and grinned, not having realized that his mother now had a grand-dog.

There was one more knock at the door. Kurenai and her son were the last to arrive. "Happy Birthday, Shikamaru," Kurenai said, kissing him on the cheek as she stepped inside. Shikamaru hadn't seen young Asuma in a while. He was startled that the boy was almost able to look him in the eye now. And he looked so much like his old sensei.

But he had his mother's eyes. Shikamaru led them all to the garden and Temari joined them on the way.

The evening droned on pleasantly. There was food and drink and plenty of laughing. After the meal, the children played loudly in the yard, alternating between an assortment of versions of tag and mock battles. Asuma held himself aloof at first, thinking he was too old for such childish games, but eventually realized that he wasn't old enough to be as boring as the adults around him so he joined in the play as well. And Akamaru didn't seem to mind in the least that the stickiest one of the lot, Gaara's daughter, kept patting him incessantly getting his fur as sticky as her hands.

The evening darkened and the lanterns cast a festive pastel glow in the backyard. Crickets chorused in the trees. Kiba teased Shikamaru about Temari's swelling belly. Shikamaru informed him that, even though he had made it clear to the troublesome woman that he only wanted one son and one daughter, apparently when it came right down to it the husband has no say in these matters. He got up and kissed his wife, of whom he was inordinately proud and who was used to his teasing by now.

At some point during the evening Shikamaru found himself sitting beside his father.

"You know, Dad, why does she do this every year? It's sure a lot of trouble to go through," he asked the older man.

His father took a draw on his cigarette and exhaled, looking up at the stars. "I already told you, it makes her happy."

"Yeah, well, what I can't figure is if she likes kids so much," he motioned to the yard where his mother and Asuma were pretending to be monsters stalking the pre-school ninjas, "then why didn't you two have a whole houseful?"

Shikaku took another long draw from the cigarette and held the smoke before blowing it leisurely up at the sky. "Well, she wanted to, but after you she couldn't have anymore," he said matter-of-factly.

Shikamaru was quiet for the longest time. He'd never really taken the time to think about things from that far back in his past before. Some people had siblings, others didn't. He never really cared. Maybe it was Temari's pregnancy that had even caused him to ask the question in the first place.

Shikaku continued, "Two years in ANBU and five S-ranked missions, and you're what nearly killed her."

There was a long pause between the two of them. "So, what happened?" Shikamaru finally asked, wondering if his carefully phrased indifference was fooling his father.

His dad shrugged and added just as nonchalantly, "Guess even then you were lazy. You didn't descend. Weren't helping any. She was exhausted by the time she agreed to let them cut her. And then there were … complications."

Shikamaru bummed a cigarette from his dad and took a long time lighting it. Shikaku continued. "Thirty minutes later, they were handing you to me, all scrubbed clean and swaddled up and she was nearly dead. Two days after that they sent you home with me and a supply of formula and I still didn't know if she'd live or die." He chuckled, "And let me tell you what you were a helluva lot of trouble."

Shikamaru winced inwardly, thinking of just how much _work_ it had been when he and Temari had brought their son home. The first few days were just a surreal, sleep deprived delirium. And if he had been having to divide his time between a newborn and Temari in the hospital…

Shikaku went on, "So for the first few days I fed you because I had to, because I knew the Hokage would throw me in jail if I let you die. And because I knew _she'd_ kick my ass to hell and back again if I let anything happen to you. But I didn't love you. Not yet. Then the nine-tails attacked and I was on the front with the rest of the Leaf shinobi. And all I could think about was you. I couldn't let anything happen to you."

Shikamaru looked out at his own children and realized how fiercely he loved them both and what he would do to protect them. It was just … awkward… as a grown man …accepting that someone… his dad… had had that same unconditional love for him. More awkward still was accepting that his father still had it.

Shikaku nodded out at the yard full of now tiring children. "And look at her now, she finally got what she wanted, a house full of kids. Just took a little while and wasn't the most conventional way of doing things. But when you showed up with that wife of yours and she had Gaara and Kankuro in tow, well, look at it from your mom's point of view. The three of them needed a mother and she needed kids. Pretty logical solution, don't you think?"

His dad looked at him, winked and grinned, "Besides, do you _really_ think she minds having the Kazekage's children call her Obaasan?"

Shikamaru tossed his cigarette to the ground and stubbed it out with his toes. "Dad?" he asked, "why tell me all of this now?"

His dad took a final drag off his own cigarette then tossed it down and crushed it. He looked at Shikamaru and smiled. "You know, they keep telling me you're a genius, but I just don't see it. Tonight you're the same age as we were when you were born."

He clapped Shikamaru's shoulder affectionately with his hand and said "Happy birthday, son," then went to join his wife and his five grandchildren (because after all, young Asuma needed grandparents, too.)

Later that evening, after everyone else had left and her own two children were being put to bed by their grandparents, Temari came up behind her husband who was sitting on a chair on the porch in the faint light from the lanterns. She leaned over him, her arms draped across his shoulders, her cheek near his and looked out into the garden. "You know, Nara, they say you don't marry a person, you marry a family. I had no idea I'd married into such a rich family."

Shikamaru held her hand quietly for a minute then replied, "Neither did I."

Fin

_**A/N:** Go hug your mom._


End file.
